I'm surprised the 840 did so well against the 945. they have the same clocks. yet I thought the L3 cache would have given the 945 a more noticeable lead. I just got a amd 945 95w(sucky MB) chip for 100$ but now I feel like I pretty much paid what it was worth instead of getting a deal :(

^^I would say that's still a good deal. enjoy.

Nice review. AMD can still (through price structure) compete in low to mid processors, but the desperately need bulldozer.

I wonder why they didn't call it athlon II x4 650?...would seem like the logical name to me if it has no L3